# Joint non-rigid image registration and reconstruction for quantitative atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a bias-corrected non-rigid registration method that effectively compensates for scan artifacts in STEM image series, enhancing atomic resolution analysis.

## Contribution

It presents a novel approach that jointly corrects fast and slow scan artifacts in STEM images through explicit deformation coupling and bias correction.

## Key findings

- Reduces scan noise in image series
- Corrects slow scan distortions
- Improves atomic resolution mapping

## Abstract

Aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopes (STEM) enable to determine local strain fields, composition and bonding states at atomic resolution. The precision to locate atomic columns is often obstructed by scan artifacts limiting the quantitative interpretation of STEM datasets. Here, a novel bias-corrected non-rigid registration approach is presented that compensates for fast and slow scan artifacts in STEM image series. The bias-correction is responsible for the correction of the slow scan artifacts and based on a explicit coupling of the deformations of the individual images in a series via a minimization of the average deformation. This allows to reduce fast scan noise in an image series and slow scan distortions simultaneously. The novel approach is tested on synthetic and experimental images and its implication on atomic resolution strain and elemental mapping is discussed.